SF Mayor London Breed wants new $300 million bond for...

1of5San Francisco Mayor London Breed attends Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s recepton on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. On Monday, Breed called for moving up a ballot proposal an affordable housing bond.Photo: Jana Asenbrennerova / Special to The Chronicle

2of5SF Mayor London Breed talks with a homeless man in front of Outfit on Castro Street as she takes a neighborhood walk this morning on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2018

3of5People (who wished to remain anonymous) hang out on Jennings Street outside of Mother Brown's Dining Room for the homeless in the Bayview neighborhood in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

4of5SF Mayor London Breed talks with a homeless man in front of Outfit on Castro Street as she takes a neighborhood walk this morning on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

5of5Homeless Outreach Team counselor Elester Hubbard (left) and Mayor London Breed (second from left) talk with Ebony Holt while working with a Healthy Streets Operation Center team in a new program called �Healthy Streets Intervention" on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Photos by Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Mayor London Breed wants to get a new $300 million affordable housing bond in front of San Francisco voters. And she wants it on the ballot by no later than March 2020.

Breed announced Monday that the bond would be added to the city’s 10-year capital plan, a blueprint for infrastructure spending over the next decade.

The plan, which is updated each odd-numbered year, lays out proposed timetables for when general obligation bonds will go before voters. In addition to adding an affordable housing bond to the schedule, Breed has also requested that city officials move up the date of a proposed $600 million bond that would pay for seismic retrofitting and other earthquake-resiliency work on public safety infrastructure, like police and fire stations and the 911 operations center.

“We need to build more housing in San Francisco, especially badly needed affordable housing to help keep our communities stable. This requires us to invest in solutions to build homes for people who need them,” Breed said in a statement.

“We also know that our public safety infrastructure must be able to withstand any upcoming earthquakes. These are both key priorities for our city, and we will work in the coming weeks to bring people together and determine what elections make the most sense for these bonds to be successful.”

The capital plan currently has the earthquake bond scheduled for this November’s election, when Breed will be running for a full term in the mayor’s office. The affordable housing bond is slated for the March 2020 primary. That schedule could change as city officials debate the timing of which bonds get issued when and digests public input, meaning the housing bond could appear on this November’s ballot.

Approval from voters means the city is authorized to issue new bonds as previous ones get paid off. Should voters green-light the affordable housing bond, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development would use the money to acquire, preserve and construct affordable units.

Chaired by City Administrator Naomi Kelly, the Capital Planning Committee charts the city’s course for issuing bonds, staggering them over time to ensure that the city can fund needed projects, but without taking on so much debt that property taxes need to be raised. The committee has to sign off on a bond proposal before sending it to the Board of Supervisors. With the board’s approval, the bond measure then has to pass the ballot with a two-thirds majority.

The reshuffling of the bond schedule would push back a $255 million bond for parks and open space until November 2020.

— Dominic Fracassa

Full circle: George K.H. Schell, a former Coca-Cola executive and a previous general counsel for the Oakland Athletics, is joining the San Francisco city attorney’s office next week.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Monday that Schell had been hired to lead the office’s Contracts and Special Projects Team. In that role, he’ll provide advice to city departments to ensure compliance with contract requirements in the government’s interactions with the private sector. He’ll also weigh in on complex contracts involving intellectual property and property and special projects around major entertainment and sporting events.

The hiring is something of a homecoming for Schell, who worked as chief of litigation in the city attorney’s office from 1988 to 1993.

“It is with great pleasure that I welcome George back to the City Attorney’s Office,” Herrera said in a statement. “George will help us continue building the requisite business knowledge and contractual flexibility to help San Francisco meet the many legal challenges generated by emerging business innovations and operations.”

Schell worked for Coca-Cola for 20 years, most recently as the company’s chief marketing counsel.

“I hope to play a key role in the office’s focused effort to help San Francisco maintain and grow its position as a world leader in effective municipal interaction with the business community,” Schell said in the statement.

Dominic Fracassa covers San Francisco City Hall for The Chronicle. He previously worked as a reporter and editor for the Daily Journal, a legal affairs newspaper. He started in news in his home state of Michigan, where he worked as a news director of 103.9 WLEN.